Summers at Willow Pond are a little different from the school year.
We have children from all over come and stay with Aunts, uncles and grandparents. It is a great time for us in the community center. We get to know and build relationships with the kids who are just visiting. This summer we had a group of 4 siblings, 3 girls and 1 boy. Their father lives at Willow Pond; he has become my friend and is currently coming to Real Men on Saturdays.
I spent my time doing Nickle Club collectively with them. We started reading the Gospel of Luke, and everyday they would come up and ask to read.
I didn't know at the time they had never read or learned about who Jesus was.
At the end of the summer they all went back home to New Orleans. He told me how well his kids are doing, and what he said next made me smile. He said the children's mother called him asking what he did to the children this summer. She told him they had been reading the bible and praying, something they had not done before. The father told me they had no biblical background until this summer. It is a reminder of how much a seed will grow if planted in good soil. One summer and these kids grabbed on to something that will change them forever.
-- Rickey Fanning
